1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to contact centers and a control of a contact environment between a customer or a potential customer (generically, “customer”) and a service agent, and, in particular, to a system and method for escalating and/or de-escalating a mode of support by the service agent during a customer contact with a contact center.
2. Description of Related Art
Call centers are commonly used by service providers or manufacturers (collectively, “vendors”) to provide customer support. Customers requesting customer support may contact the call center by telephone. As additional methods of communication between agent and customer have been developed such as, but not limited to, e-mail, instant messaging, web chat, and so forth, call centers have evolved into contact centers in order to handle communication by a variety of methods, i.e., beyond telephone calls. An instance of a customer contacting a contact center by any of these methods will be referred to herein as a customer contact. In contact centers, quickly finding and assigning a well-qualified service agent to service and fulfill a customer's need is important in providing improved customer satisfaction.
Typically, a contact center has the ability to handle a considerable volume of calls, providing functions such as routing calls to agents, logging calls, recording calls, and so forth. Contact centers are used by many mail-order catalog organizations, telemarketing companies, computer product help desks, government agencies, and large enterprises.
Known systems and methods for handling a customer contact in a contact center include providing choices to the customer prior to connecting with a service agent or after completing a call with the service agent, but these choices are generally limited in what is allowed. Multiple customer contacts may be needed to answer an inquiry or to resolve a problem, leading to inefficiencies and increased costs. The customer's perception may negatively affect their satisfaction with the customer contact and with the vendor.
Therefore, a need exists to provide more flexible communication methods during a customer contact between a customer and service agent, in order to provide a closer and more loyal customer relationship, and ultimately improved customer satisfaction.